Of Bushes and Books
by Golden.January
Summary: Leaf has a crush on Gary. Drabble. AU. One-shot


**Of Bushes and Books** **  
Leaf has a crush on Gary. Drabble. AU**  
 **Rated: K+  
**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

 **AU: This story is unbeta-ed so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors.  
**

* * *

It was ridiculous.

Heart palpitating hard in her chest, back flush against the stone wall and papers wrinkling within the tight white knuckled grasp of her hands, Leaf held her breath as she counted mentally. _-54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59 and 60!_ Carefully and oh so cautiously the brunette chanced a peek around the corner, taking great care to expose herself as little possible in case _he_ happened to look her way. Although she hardly doubted that he would, after all she had made sure to wait a full minute and even the elderly would've passed her chosen hiding spot (and poorly picked in hindsight) within seconds let alone someone who was completely oblivious to her actions.

 _But_ , it couldn't hurt to be careful especially when she was acting so suspicious. And so green eyes peered around the corner and just as she had expected the coast was completely clear, there was hardly a soul in sight except a lone pidgey picking away at a forgotten sandwich.

Releasing her breath in a sigh of relief, Leaf stepped tentatively out from the shadows her cheeks burning in embarrassment at herself. Honestly her actions were completely uncalled for, overly dramatic and she probably looked ridiculous to anyone who happened to look her way (Thankfully there was none _this_ time). But, as she found in the last few weeks, she couldn't help it at all; the mere sight of him was enough for her natural instincts to throw herself into a bush and out of sight. Which was completely and utterly ridiculous considering that he practically didn't know she existed (Well technically he did but not in _that_ way, you know?) let alone was privy to the fact that she might've possibly had the tiniest of crushes on him. The brunette had no intention whatsoever of letting him find out but given her actions over the last few weeks that was becoming more of a hopeful prospect.

Leaf mentally groaned. She would probably die in embarrassment if he caught her in the middle of an act and even worse confronting her about it. She could practically imagine how that would turn out and it was not at all pretty (Face flushing and stuttering incoherently all over the place before finally succumbing into flee mode).

It was all Hilda's fault, really. If that girl hadn't mentioned how great Gary was then she wouldn't have noticed him (Not that she hadn't noticed him before, it was hard not to) and paid any extra attention to him. But Hilda _had_ mentioned him (Quite a lot actually and that was kind of suspicious itself) and Leaf _had_ noticed him so now she was stuck with a crush that will cause her public embarrassment (Already happened actually, several times in fact) each time she saw him.

Stupid Hilda. Stupid infatuation. Stupid Gary. Curse him for being so darn cute and nice. It wasn't as if he didn't have a nice number of admirers already, why lure her into the small percentage? Darn him and his charisma, it just wasn't fair-

The brunette halted her thoughts abruptly face flushing as she realized what she was doing. No, no, NO! She was not going to even _think_ about him lest it ruin her mentality (Arceus knows what it already done to her socially). Brushing out her skirt and smoothing out the wrinkled papers in her hands she strode forward towards the library, her original destination, determinedly.

She wasn't going to let a little fledgling crush practically instigated by Hilda (Which was still very suspicious) get in her way especially one as impossible as this one. She was going to go on with her life and cease interaction with him as much as possible (not that there was much to begin with).

She was going to get over it.

* * *

Green eyes peered over the top of the books propped up before her, casually observing the library over before quickly darting over to the technology section and back down at her history report. Needless to say there hadn't been much progress done on the report so far. Teeth gritted and pen tightly held in her grasp the brunette forced her eyes to reread what she had previously wrote. _–the Mesopotamian people are important to historians_ "because they are the oldest group of people to have kept written records of their daily lives." mumbled Leaf under her breath as she finished the sentence in her curvy scrawl, "This is important because-"

Laughter floated towards her from the technology section. Immediately all thoughts of the Mesopotamians flew away as her eyes snapped up to the source of it.

There he was clapping a friend heartily on the back as his shoulders shook with suppressed laughter, Gary's face shone with amusement a rare boyish grin lit up his features. Leaf unabashedly stared.

"Stare any longer and someone will notice," sang Hilda teasingly snapping her fingers to catch her friend's attention. Leaf blushed, green eyes quickly shooting back down to her paper and quickly scribbled a few nonsensical sentences down feigning ignorance to Hilda's words. "Aw, come on Leaf," the brunette pouted partially offended by her friends reaction, "It's pretty obvious you like Gary."

"It's just a little infatuation," corrected Leaf eyes forcibly trained downwards rereading words that didn't register, "A teeny tiny one if you will, nothing remotely close to _like_." _What_ did _she write?_

Hilda raised a single eyebrow up not at all convinced. "Ri-ght"

A flutter of nerves and embarrassment danced in her stomach, "It's true!"

Twack. The end of Hilda's pink pen hit her notebook.

Leaf crossed out the last few sentences of her paper.

Twack. Twack. Twack.

 _-have kept written records of their daily lives. This is important because-_ Twack. "This is because, because uh," Leaf muttered frantically to herself as the taps continued. Twack. The grip on her pen tightened. Twack. Twack. Gosh, the sound was nerve wrecking.

Twack. Twack. Twack.

Her nerves danced to the beat.

Twack. Twa-

"Do you mind Hilda?" gritted out Leaf, "Trying to finish homework here."

"Hmm?" hummed Hilda grey eyes twinkling devilishly, "What was that?" Twack. Twack.

"Can. You. Stop. That?"

Twack. "I could." Twack. "You missed a capital there Leaf." Twack.

"Come on," protested Leaf with a groan while still resolutely refusing to meet her friend's eye, "I'm never going to finish if you continue doing that!"

"The paper? Psh. Easy stuff," brushed off the tapping brunette easily, "You'll finish it in ten minutes."

Twack.

"I have other stuff to do."

Twack.

"You would have finished them if you weren't so distracted this half hour Leaf."

Twack.

Leaf moaned. Hilda was _impossible_ when she had her mind set to something. Resignedly she turned back towards her work determined to ignore the taps.

Twack. Twack.

The grip on her pen tightened ever further as she slowly scrawled out a word.

Twack. Twack. Twack.

 _-barley was a staple within the-_

Twack. "Gary looks good in his purple tee doesn't he?" Twack. "Barry totally can't pull purple off like he does."

Twack.

"Huh? What's wrong Leaf? Don't let me distract you."

Twack. Twack. Twack. Twack.

"Okay stop!" cried Leaf throwing her pen down, "You win okay? I like him." She slumped down in her seat in defeat a furious flush painting her cheeks. "I like him," she repeated quieter.

From her seat Hilda grinned as she twirled the pink pen around a finger innocently. "I know. I've noticed you've been acting _very_ strangely around him." Leaf squeaked the heat on her cheeks intensifying. Great, of _all_ subjects Hilda had to bring up it just _had_ to be the most embarrassing one. "You could have acted a tad bit more conspicuous." As if she didn't know that already. Crossing her arms on top the table Leaf buried her face deep into them in embarrassment.

"Although I do find it amusing this is how you react around him. It would be cute if it wasn't so funny." Leaf had no doubt that Hilda was finding great amusement from her pain. It was a wonder how her brother Hilbert put up with her, Hilda was just plain evil at times. "So are you going to confess?"

Leaf shot up in her seat appalled at the suggestion. "Never! There is no way I'm ever going to tell him! And don't you dare come up with any ideas," hissed Leaf in warning, "I'm going to get over this silly crush and we'll both go on with our lives. _Capisce_?"

Hilda protested, "But why? You two would make a lovely couple!"

" _Why?_ " repeated Leaf incredulously throwing her arms up, "How about he's Gary _freaking_ Oak."

"I know he's Gary Oak," Hilda sighed with a roll of her eyes, "I want to know why not? You guys would look cute together."

"Because"

"Because?"

"I just told you! He's Gary Oak!"

"And I'm still not seeing your point in his name."

Leaf groaned exasperated at her friend's persistence. Didn't she get it? He was Gary Oak one of the most popular guys in their grade, there was zero chance he was going to even look her way. He didn't know her and she didn't know him (although she was pretty sure she knew more about him then he would ever about her) and that was that.

"Come on Leaf won't you even think about it?" urged Hilda with a frown. "I think you two would work out if you tried. I mean you both are smart and all."

"Smart and all?" repeated Leaf disbelievingly. That was Hilda's basis on their compatibility? There was completely no grounds on that claim at all! And besides she was not smart, she was only a little above average and a bookworm she was not smart, _smart_. Now Gary was legitimately smart, he easily got high grades in every subject without so much of an effort she on the other hand was not. "That doesn't even make sense! It's a comparison! How does that- Ugh, you know what never mind just forget we ever have this conversation!"

Hilda pouted but decided to lay off her friend for now, there'll be more opportune moments to casually broach subject again later. Perhaps she should recruit a few others? Leaf _can_ be ridiculously stubborn and Serena would probably be delighted to barge in on her sibling's love life. Yes, that was what she will do; for now she'll let Leaf go but later the girl wasn't going anywhere. Not when they would totally make a cute pair.

Leaf sighed glad that the conversation is over and turned back to her paper. Picking up the abandoned pen the brunette idly doodled in the margins of her notebook ignoring the paper she had yet to finish. The conversation with Hilda had taken any will to do work out of her and in its place was a tumbling ball of turmoil.

There was no way she could go ignoring him now and hopefully resume her normal life, not now when Hilda found out. It was practically guaranteed that she wasn't going to drop it that easily even if the brunette allowed her to dodge the bullet this time. A silent groan rose in her thoughts at the possible interventions Hilda would come up with (She's seen what Hilda done to others in the same position and there was only word to describe her; persistent). How was she to get over it now? Great, it was just great.

Glaring at her paper Leaf mentally cursed her luck. Of course of all people Hilda _had_ to be the one to notice why couldn't it be May or Marina? But noo Lady Luck must've hated her (Or was it Lord Fate?) and choose Hilda. 'Why don't you just tell Gary, Lady Luck?' thought Leaf venomously, 'Then Hilda won't badger me about it. But that would make my life easier wouldn't it? Wouldn't want that now-'

The girl's thoughts suddenly came to a screeching halt as panic took hold. Wait, what? Tell Gary? Holy cucumbers! Did Gary _know_? Hilda figured it out, didn't she? Nah, Hilda was her closest friend of course she'll be the first to notice; Gary couldn't possibly have sniffed it out. Yup, there was absolutely no way he could've known unless she shouted it out across the world.

There was no way at all, none whatsoever, not a chance.

Who was she kidding!? She _had_ practically tried to climb walls at the sight of him and Hilda wasn't known to be the most observant of people. If Hilda suspected it then who else could've!?

The thought almost sent her hyperventilating.

No they were friends, if anyone was to catch on it would be a close friend and that was what Hilda was. Gary doesn't even know she existed, how could he possibly ever figure it out? Besides he probably hadn't even noticed her strange behavior after all she was just in the background and no one paid attention to the background of their life. Leaf nodded to herself, yes, that was it Gary didn't know and why would he? It wasn't like someone was going to tell him.

That thought sent a wave a cold sweat through her as she shot up straight in her seat. Hilda looked over at her strangely but the brunette paid her no mind; more pressing issues were at hand.

His friends could've very well figured it out and shared their speculations to him. Her mind raced with the possibilities. Or maybe they haven't noticed either or they haven't made the connection. But what if Hilda told? She shot a quick look to the said friend who was silently milling over a passage in a textbook. No, Hilda wouldn't do that they were friends and that would go against every unspoken female friend rule out there. There was no way Hilda would do that; she shouldn't even be speculating the possibility of Hilda telling on her.

But that still didn't put a close to the problem that Gary might possibly not be suspicious of her feelings. He wasn't stupid or blind for any matter he was bound to notice at some point or another if she didn't step up her game. That was a fact that she long accepted but had blissfully ignored so far. Darn herself for being ignorant.

She shouldn't have to have Hilda clue in it all by herself to make her realise this. And she was planning to just pretend and hope she got over it? Ha, fat chance of that happening with how she was dealing with it. But she had no idea how to deal with it all that she was going on so far was instinct and that was to-

"Hey, Leaf" a hand clapped onto her shoulder, interrupting the torrid line of thoughts circling around in her mind.

Whipping around in her chair to view the source of it, Leaf's vision was abruptly met with a purple clad torso that led up to...a very familiar face. Holding his amber gaze she blinked, the situation slowly dawning upon her. Gary's hand was on her shoulder; Gary was the one who spoke to her...Gary was Gary _freaking_ Oak!

-dive into the nearby bush and out of sight.

As soon as the two connected in her mind Leaf leaped up with a loud yelp knocking his hand off her shoulder and successfully sent her chair to clatter loudly at his feet. And to top it off, she had unceremoniously knocked over the wall of books she and Hilda propped up to hide themselves behind. They fell one by one, like domino, and she could only watch as each one made contact against the table with a resounding boom that echoed throughout the library. What followed after it was unnatural still silence.

She looked up.

Everyone was staring at her.

Hilda was staring at her, mouth opened to a shocked gape and eyes comically wide.

Gary was staring at her, his hands held up in surprise, the chair laying awkwardly across his feet.

Heat rushed up to her cheeks at the situation, a red flashing warning was going off in her mind to flee the scene, but for the first time since discovering her infatuation with Gary Oak her body refused to obey the instinct.

Oh, why couldn't he be dumb and blind?

.

.

.

And why couldn't she have magical powers that will summon a hole to swallow her up?

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 **Word Count: 2,747 words**  
 **Posted: 10:40 pm 9/6/2015** **  
Thanks for reading!**  
 **Please Review! Flames, suggestions and comments are accepted!**

 **AU: If anyone has a better idea for title can you please PM me? I don't think the current one is very fitting but I can't think of another one. Thanks :)**


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